Elmore continues to improve wastewater plant, other project

$7 million in work happening in village

Oct. 24, 2013

Elmore's new wastewater treatment plant is about three-fourths completed but already in use. Once finished, the outflowing water will be 10 times cleaner than the Portage River. Both the wastewater treatment plant and the village's new substation should be completed by late November. An open house will be planned in the spring. / Sheri Trusty/News Herald photo

Written by

Sheri Trusty

News Herald correspondent

ELMORE — With the ongoing construction of Elmore’s new substation and wastewater treatment plant, $7 million in work is going in the village.

Both projects are under way on Merle Harder Boulevard near Riverbend Park, and both are on track to be completed by late November.

Plans for the substation began after a lightning strike caused a 56-hour outage in the village two years ago.

Village council and the board of public affairs discussed the benefits of a second substation and decided one was needed to protect electric service in the future.

“With two you can loop the whole town,” village Superintendent Buck Stoiber said.

The circular loop will provide continuous electric service in case of emergency. If one substation is damaged or shut down for any reason, the other can provide service to the entire village.

“We made a big circle,” Stoiber said. “At any point we can open up the circuit and feed from the other direction.”

Work on the substation, which is being constructed near the wastewater treatment plant, is about one-third complete. U.S. Utilities was hired as the general contractor, and the project was funded through a 1.25-percent loan through American Municipal Power, who is the village’s power supplier.

A significant cost savings came through reconditioning a second transformer the village bought several years ago.

“It was a standby,” Elmore Board of Public Affairs President Gary Rhiel said. “After the outage, we took that transformer, moved it into place and then reconditioned the old transformer. That’s the one that will be at the substation.”

Cost to recondition the unit was $90,000, which Rhiel said is significantly less than the cost of a new unit.

“We saved a lot of money, so we feel we made a good decision getting a new transformer years ago,” Rhiel said.

The new substation will be named in honor of former village superintendent Merle Harder, who died last year.

The village’s new wastewater treatment plant became a necessity after Ohio Environmental Protection Agency laws were enacted.

“The village was required to clean all bypasses to the Portage River after new parameters were set by the EPA for affluence,” Stoiber said. “There was no way our old plant could meet those parameters.”

The village sought advice from Poggemeyer Design Group out of Bowling Green.

“The dilemma we were in was, do we change the distribution system, or do we put in new?” Stoiber said.

Poggemeyer recommended a new wastewater treatment plant. The project is funded in part by a 20-year, 0-percent OEPA Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance loan.

The new plant, which is being constructed by Mosser Construction of Fremont, is a trickling filter plant that has the capability to filter 280,000 gallons per day. The old plant could filter 186,000 gallons per day.

“We chose to put in an oxidation ditch,” Stoiber said. “It’s a biological treatment with two clarifiers, activated sludge removal and UV disinfection. We’ve done away with all chlorine.”

Although the project is only three-fourths completed, the old plant has been demolished and the new plant is in use. More treatment processes have yet to be added to the plant, but the outflowing water already is clear.

“The clean affluence to the river will be 10 times cleaner than the Portage River,” Stoiber said.

The plant’s operator, Bill Treat, is serving in Afghanistan, so Donnie Dunavant, a class 3 operator, was hired in Treat’s absence.

“We needed someone with certification and a knowledge of the upgraded system,” Rhiel said.

Rhiel said many village residents have asked about seeing the new substation and wastewater treatment plant once they are completed. He said that the board of public affairs plans to host an open house in late spring.

“It will be a while before it’s presentable,” Rhiel said. “We’re hoping to have an open house in late spring. The grass will have grown, and we’ll have planted flower beds.”